London Overground to close 65 ticket offices

[Bungle965]

News that does not really shock me is that it has been announced that 65 ticket offices are set to close at London Overground stations.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-45423965

Arriva Rail London, which runs Transport for London's (TfL) overground services, says the proposals are going through a consultation phase.

If the scheme goes ahead, the train company says 65 ticket offices will be shut.

It is a move which has angered trade unions who say the closures will displace staff.

Arriva Rail London says it is examining how tickets are sold at stations in light of the growing use of new technology - in particular contactless payments

A spokeswoman said: "Before any ticket office closure is permitted, as is common across the rail industry, we would have to adhere to a consultation process which involves the Department for Transport, train operating companies and passenger representative."

The ticket offices will remain open while all views are considered, the Arriva Rail London added.

Relatively recently London Overground have begun installing new ticket machines in their stations from ATOS (I believe) which sells a wide range of tickets including rover and rangers. However the glaringly obvious thing which is missing from that is things like Staff Travel Cards and of course Rail Travel Vouchers.
Sam

 

[furnessvale]

News that does not really shock me is that it has been announced that 65 ticket offices are set to close at London Overground stations.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-45423965

Relatively recently London Overground have begun installing new ticket machines in their stations from ATOS (I believe) which sells a wide range of tickets including rover and rangers. However the glaringly obvious thing which is missing from that is things like Staff Travel Cards and of course Rail Travel Vouchers.
Sam

Surely, if you cannot buy the required priv from a machine you get on the train and buy from the on board staff or failing that at the far end?

 

[ainsworth74]

Surely, if you cannot buy the required priv from a machine you get on the train and buy from the on board staff or failing that at the far end?

LO is DOO so there is no on board staff to sell tickets and if they've shut all the ticket offices how do you buy a ticket at the far end? You may be making a connection but the LO network is pretty extensive at this point so it's perfectly possible that you'd be making a journey entirely on their services.

 

[Clip]

News that does not really shock me is that it has been announced that 65 ticket offices are set to close at London Overground stations.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-45423965

Relatively recently London Overground have begun installing new ticket machines in their stations from ATOS (I believe) which sells a wide range of tickets including rover and rangers. However the glaringly obvious thing which is missing from that is things like Staff Travel Cards and of course Rail Travel Vouchers.
Sam

Im sure the staff left on the station or indeed any staff displaced to station duties would have the same operator function on the machines as LUL staff do and this would enable them to provide such services?

 

[87015]

PRIV NR only Oyster now available to all staff covers the vast majority of the (very few!) PRIV fares anyway, surely?

 

[Bungle965]

Im sure the staff left on the station or indeed any staff displaced to station duties would have the same operator function on the machines as LUL staff do and this would enable them to provide such services?

This would solve the issue somewhat, however is there any evidence that this is the case?
Sam

 

[Bletchleyite]

Is it maybe now time for a contract with one of the online vendors to sell Privs for collection?

Same with Rangers/Rovers?

 

[Bungle965]

Is it maybe now time for a contract with one of the online vendors to sell Privs for collection?

Same with Rangers/Rovers?

Serco already does this for the Caledonian Sleeper, where you get discount count which will give you PRIV discount fares.
Sam

 

[swt_passenger]

People keep saying they want TfL to take over more routes, allegedly so that it’s run more like the underground. Does this really come as a surprise to anyone?

 

[theageofthetra]

LO is DOO so there is no on board staff to sell tickets and if they've shut all the ticket offices how do you buy a ticket at the far end? You may be making a connection but the LO network is pretty extensive at this point so it's perfectly possible that you'd be making a journey entirely on their services.

You can get non protected Priv added to Oyster to sort that.

 

[philthetube]

if you make a regular journey you would be effectively entitled to free travel if no oyster card was obtained.

 

[ScotGG]

People keep saying they want TfL to take over more routes, allegedly so that it’s run more like the underground. Does this really come as a surprise to anyone?

Many non-TfL stations in parts of London like the south east don't even have staff for much of the day let alone ticket offices open.

 

[swt_passenger]

Many non-TfL stations in parts of London like the south east don't even have staff for much of the day let alone ticket offices open.

That’s what I was thinking. Even if they end up with a man on the platform who can help with the TVMs they’ll still be better off than many places, and similar to the underground...

 

[Starmill]

The problem of staff discount is nothing new. Lots of stations served by London Overground already don't have a ticket office. What about if you arrive at Kew Gardens and want a Priv single to Watford North? You'd be well overcharged if you paid contactless, or even Oyster with Priv NR discount. The result? Being let through.

IMO the obvious solution is to keep at least one ticket machine and member of staff at each station. The stations should be staffed full time anyway. No need for staff to be situated inside an actual ticket office.

Oxford Parkway doesn't have a ticket office, but staff can sell tickets to customers if needed, if they aren't able to use the machines.

There is also no reason why London Overground couldn't provide an onboard host to assist customers on and off the train, interrogate contactless cards, check or sell tickets and offer advice either. This is the direction most of the industry seems to be moving in, but for their own reasons TfL don't seem to like the idea much.

 

[Clip]

This would solve the issue somewhat, however is there any evidence that this is the case?
Sam

I have no idea

 

[LLivery]

This was announced back in December. The Sydenham Society has been arguing against it, saying 250,000 people use both Sydenham and Forest Hill ticket offices a year, but that seems to not matter. I'd hope the staff will get better training at least. They seem to be trained on the tube map and often clueless on the South London rail network.

 

[whhistle]

LO is DOO so there is no on board staff to sell tickets and if they've shut all the ticket offices how do you buy a ticket at the far end?

In that case, I'm sure the gate staff would just let you out and you've had a free journey.
The tiny amount of people who would fall into this isn't worth having a staff member at the station... clearly

 

[Kite159]

In theory it is a good idea to free up the member of staff from the office to be available out front, especially on a network where a good portion of travellers will be using Oyster/Contactless so I can imagine during the middle of the day at some of the more quieter stations will go periods of time without seeing any customers wanting to buy a ticket which isn't a travelcard.

 

[transmanche]

In that case, I'm sure the gate staff would just let you out and you've had a free journey.
The tiny amount of people who would fall into this isn't worth having a staff member at the station... clearly :P

Although LO stations are staffed first-to-last anyway.

 

[tsr]

Although LO stations are staffed first-to-last anyway.

Not in the same way as - for example - the Tube, though. They have a very basic security presence at a lot of their stations, and for those ones, that’s pretty much it. The staff may wear an ARL uniform but that often is about as far as it goes.

Therefore the broad brush of the concept of staffing levels will (sadly) probably turn out to be of little relevance to passengers wanting help with ticketing.

 

[theageofthetra]

The problem of staff discount is nothing new. Lots of stations served by London Overground already don't have a ticket office. What about if you arrive at Kew Gardens and want a Priv single to Watford North? You'd be well overcharged if you paid contactless, or even Oyster with Priv NR discount. The result? Being let through.

IMO the obvious solution is to keep at least one ticket machine and member of staff at each station. The stations should be staffed full time anyway. No need for staff to be situated inside an actual ticket office.

Oxford Parkway doesn't have a ticket office, but staff can sell tickets to customers if needed, if they aren't able to use the machines.

There is also no reason why London Overground couldn't provide an onboard host to assist customers on and off the train, interrogate contactless cards, check or sell tickets and offer advice either. This is the direction most of the industry seems to be moving in, but for their own reasons TfL don't seem to like the idea much.

You can get priv loaded onto Oyster.

 

[leytongabriel]

Some of the criticism must be due to people's experience with London Underground 'visible staff' on stations. Visible in the technical sense perhaps, but too often busily engaged with their mobile phones head down in a booth or talking to each other. This isn't a criticism of them, I'd be bored ****less too, but of the way their new role is not clear to the travelling public. What are they for? If asked about anything other than the most basic ticket-buying advice ( e.g. for non-Londoners unused to the system) the stock answer seems to be that you have to go on line. They don't seem to have either the training or the access to software that the old booking office staff had. As for knowledge of the system! I recently failed to get any one of three LUL station staff at Vauxhall to tell me when the last northbound train was. Like myself, they hadn't even realised there was a poster in the station concourse but it was in such a position that you couldn't see it on entering.
Would more training be relevant? An understanding that station staff should actively try to help people? Easily readable badges suggesting how they might help?

 

[jeromeroberts]

From the Mayors Office

https://www.london.gov.uk/press-releases/mayoral/mayor-tfl-to-keep-overground-ticket-offices-open-0

 

[hwl]

From the Mayors Office

https://www.london.gov.uk/press-releases/mayoral/mayor-tfl-to-keep-overground-ticket-offices-open-0

Another TfL non cost saving!